248 
tion of them showed that they were really quite 
formidable and dangerous for any sort of craft 
whatever. Nearly five miles in length, the first 
half or three-quarters of a mile is through a 
canon from fifty to sixty feet deep, where the 
original stream is contracted to one-eighth or 
one-tenth its former width, and through which 
the river fairly boils. ‘This canon, the only 
true one on the Yukon River,’ is composed of 
basaltic columns, so regular that they are not 
unlike representations of the Giant’s Causeway 
on the Irish coast. In the centre of its length 
it expands into a large, circular, basaltic basin 
seventy or eighty yards wide, or double the 
width of the cafion proper; and here the water’s 
edge could be reached on the west shore. 
After leaving the canon, the channel expands 
into a sheet of rushing rapids, often three hun- 
dred to four hundred yards wide, broken by 
rocky bars into frothy chutes full of bowlders 
and foaming and bristling dams of lodged and 
water-logged timber, ten times more dangerous 
than the canon itself, although not so in ap- 
pearance. About four miles of this brings us 
to the end, where the river, again contracting 
into a few yards, shoots down a cascade so 
narrow and swift that the ascending banks of 
rock are covered with the rushing current that 
falls over their sides in sheets, and makes it a 
veritable funnel of foaming water. 
Through this canon, rapids, and cascade we 
shot our raft July 2, losing the two side-logs 
in a collision in the canon with its basaltic col- 
umns, and, just below the cascade, hauled in for 
repairs, and to redeck the raft with the fine 
straight spruce and pine poles that we here 
found in large quantities, thoroughly seasoned 
by some fire that had destroyed them two or 
three years before. Like all the Coniferae 
erowing in dense masses, these timber districts 
have their periodical devastations of fire; and 
years after, the fallen timber, coupled with the 
new growth, makes pedestrianism border on 
the impossible. 
A few Tahk-heesh Indians had been em- 
ployed by us in our labors around the Miles’ 
canon and rapids;? and I was forced to con- 
trast their great kindness to each other, and 
especially to their women, with the conduct, the 
very reverse, in the Chilcats. These Chilcats, 
in tracking canoes up the Dayay, refused to — 
convey the loads of their fellows not provided 
1 Imean by a true canon one with perpendicular or prac- 
tically perpendicular sides, although every precipitous and deep 
valley in the west is often called acafon. With such an under- 
standing, it would be impossible to tell where a canon ended and 
a valley commenced. 
2 Named after Brevet Major-Gen. Nelson A. Miles, U.S. 
Army, commanding department of Columbia, in which Alaska 
is situated. 
SCIENCE. 
ik a 
[Vor. IIL, No. 56. 
with these craft, although to have done so 
would have necessitated no extra labor, thus 
compelling the latter to carry their packs as 
they did over the Perrier Portage. They would 
not even ferry them over the swift Dayay, 
forcing them into long détours or perilous cross- 
ings up to their middle in the rapids. Even 
in cases of sickness they would do nothing for 
their comrades, unless compensated by a part 
of the payment. 
Grayling were caught in large numbers in 
and around these rapids, some four hundred 
to five hundred being secured by the party. 
They were also caught in straggling numbers 
from Lake Bove, until White River, below old 
Fort Selkirk, was reached. Moose and cari- 
bou (woodland reindeer) tracks were abun- 
dant, but no animals seen; and the dense 
swarms of mosquitoes were amply sufficient 
to convince any one that the tracks of an an- 
imal were the only part that could remain in 
the country during this part of the year. 
These pests, coupled with the gnats, were the 
greatest discomfort that the party was called 
on to bear; and there was no cessation from 
them the whole length of the river, although 
the upper part was much the worst. ‘The dense 
smoke of the camp-fire was always crowded 
with the party whenever the wind was not blow- 
ing, and meals were eaten under mosquito-bars 
for protection. From the time the snow is half 
off the ground until the first severe frost comes, 
no one disputes the valley with them. Dogs 
have been known to be killed by them; and, 
after two or three months of the closest inter- 
course with them, I was willing to believe the 
Indian stories that they even slay the brown 
and grizzly bear of these regions.? 
I noticed that a Tahk-heesh Indian, in ar- 
ranging his head and breast-band for a load, 
pulled the former forward until taut, and the 
latter just far enough beyond to allow the 
width of his hand between them, when they 
were considered adjusted. I had also noticed 
this among the Chilcats. 
One evening, about eight, while encamped 
some four hundred or five hundred yards be- 
low the cascades in the Miles’ rapids, we could 
hear dull, heavy concussions in single blows, 
at intervals of every two or three minutes. 
It was noticed by more than one, and thought 
by some to be possibly distant thunder, al- 
though it sounded strangely unlike that noisy 
1 This statement is asserted as a fact by some Indians and 
white traders, who state that the bear, in trespassing upon a 
swampy habitation of mosquitoes, instead of seeking safety in 
flight, rears upon bis hind-quarters, and fights them bear-fashion, 
until his eyes are closed by their repeated attacks, when starvation 
is the real cause of death. 
